BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and its listed arm PetroChina Co Ltd (HK 0857; NYSE PTR) said the other owned a southwest China gas field where a fatal blowout has killed 233 people. Neither company would comment on the cause of the disaster which has also put some 10,000 people in hospital...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – SP Power Development Co Ltd (SHA 600795) said its board of directors approved a proposal to buy a 35% stake in Hebei Handan Thermal Power Co Ltd for 275.03 million yuan from the listed company’s parent, China Guodian (Group) Corp. (US$1=8.27 yuan). After the deal is completed, SP Power Development will hold...

Australia’s Victoria state government said it has reached a retail gas and electricity price agreement with privately owned energy retailers from January 1 2004. In a statement, energy retailer Origin Energy said the agreement establishes a price path for standing and deemed electricity and gas retail contracts in Victoria to the end of 2007. This...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said it has affirmed its BBB foreign currency rating on Huaneng Power International Inc (SHA 600011; HK 0902; NYSE HNP) while revising the outlook to positive from stable. S&P said in a statement that Huaneng’s rating is currently constrained by the agency’s foreign currency sovereign rating...

Dallas-based International TME Resources Inc. said it has acquired royalty interests in two additional onshore oil and gas permits located in the Cooper-Eromanga Basin in South Australia. The permits contain 506,811 acres and 372,633 acres, respectively. The two oil & gas permits contain numerous structures identified by sub-surface mapping using seismic data. The acquisition brings...

SHANGHAI (AFX-ASIA) – Royal Dutch/Shell is looking into the potential synergies from investing in a US$2 billion oil refinery next to the petrochemicals joint venture that it is building in Nanhai in China’s Guangdong province, the Financial Times said. The FT quoted Simon Lam, chief executive officer of the CSPC Nanhai Petrochemicals Project – a...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said its credit ratings on Japan’s nine major electric power companies (EPCOs) would not be affected by the possible sale of their stakes in electricity wholesaler Electric Power Development Co (J-POWER). ll nine utilities are currently rated ‘AA-‘ with a negative rating outlook. The nine EPCOs, which...

China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Ltd (CAO) is acquiring 80% of the Shuidong oil storage facilities asset from Shenzhen Juzhengyuan Petrochemical Co Ltd. (JZY). A joint venture between CAO and JZY will be established to operate this oil tank farm in China and carry out other oil-related activities. CAO’s purchase includes an 80% equity interest...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Financially troubled Japan Oil Development Co will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan National Oil Corp next month, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, citing sources close to the matter. It said the move was made possible by a recent court decision rejecting the claims of three shareholders in the failed public-private venture...

In his recent address to the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ministerial summit in Washington, D.C., ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Lee R. Raymond spoke of the challenges to harnessing LNG’s potential in meeting the world’s energy needs. He said state agencies must have “consistent and complete policies that, when encouraging the use of natural gas, must...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – A consortium, comprising Tenaga Nasional Bhd and its foreign partners, has been shortlisted for a US$1 billion power plant and desalination project in Saudi Arabia as part of its move to diversify overseas, Tenaga chairman Awang Adek Hussin said. “We have been informed that we are shortlisted for the project,” he...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Medco Energy Internasional said that the successful acquisition of Australia’s oil and gas firm Novus Petroleum Ltd could increase Medco’s average oil production by around 20%. “If the acquisition succeeds, Medco Energi will expand its 2P (proven and probable) reserves and average production by approximately 20%,” Medco said in a statement....

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Large state-owned enterprises in northeast China’s industrial rustbelt have been urged to offload loss-making non-core assets including company-run schools and hospitals within two years, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The Xinhua report was quoting a senior official at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). Major SOEs in the northeast...

SINGAPORE (AFX-ASIA) – DBS Vickers Securities has raised its earnings estimates for jet-fuel procurement company China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp Ltd by 8.7% to S$62.8 million for the year to December 2003 following news that it will receive 2.98 million euros in dividend payments from its 5% investment in Spain’s Compania Logistica de Hidrocarburos (CLH)....

The death of more than 230 people in Chongqing as a result of a hydrogen sulphide gas leak at a gas field has badly damaged the image of the industry as a provider of safe and clean energy source. More than 40,000 villagers have been evacuated and several hundreds have been hospitalised for serious injuries....

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become an official observer-organisation to the Energy Charter Conference, an inter-governmental body promoting energy cooperation. A total of 51 European and Asian countries are full members. ASEAN’s application to be granted observer status was unanimously approved by the Charter Conference at its meeting in Brussels early this...

Australian resources company BHP Billiton and equal joint venture partner Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd have signed a “substantial” gas sale and purchase agreement with AGL Wholesale Gas Limited (AGL). The agreement is for the sale and purchase of up to 983 petajoules (gross) of Bass Strait gas to AGL over a period of up...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), China’s largest oil group, signed an agreement in Algeria on Monday for oil exploration in two blocks awarded by the Algerian government, the official Xinhua news agency reported, without citing sources. It said CNPC, the parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co Ltd (HK 0857), plans to spend...

MOSCOW (AFX) – President Vladimir Putin has told Iraqi leaders that Russia is willing to write off up to two-thirds of Iraq’s debt to Moscow, but only if its oil companies get their share of contracts in Iraq, a Kremlin official said. Putin made the offer to cancel a large chunk of the US$8 billion...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved an equity investment of US$20 million in a fund to help small- and medium-size firms in Asia invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy with clean technologies. The fund will provide capital, project expertise, and international and emerging market experience to catalyze energy efficiency and renewable energy markets...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – National utilities company Tenaga Nasional Bhd expects to raise some RM4.4 billion by June next year, from the sale of some assets, and will use the proceeds to pare down its debts as well as provide funding for future capital spending, chairman Awang Adek Hussin said. (US$1=RM3.8). Tenaga, which is finalising...

Polyolefins company Borouge is planning to expand the capacity at its world scale petrochemical complex at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi in the UAE. The move follows the plant’s successful first two years of operation, rising demand for enhanced polyolefins and the growing availability of feedstocks. In a statement, Borouge said it will invest US$40 million to...

ENOC Aviation has been voted best international jet fuel marketer in the Middle East and Africa by major airlines based in the Asia Pacific region, according to Pipeline Newsletter. Airlines in the Middle East, Africa and North America regions also voted ENOC Aviation the second best regional marketer, said the report The rankings came in...

US energy consultant ESAI has predicted the heating oil deficit in the US will not be as high as that in 2003. In its latest six-month forecast in its Atlantic Basin Stockwatch report, ESAI said: “The US heating oil market has strengthened on cold weather and low imports. Its forecast calls for strong US gasoline...